PLANES, TRAINS, & TANKS:
THE PODCAST
Everything you need to know about the latest in cybersecurity for planes, trains and tanks.
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Critical infrastructure like water plants, power plants, and sewage treatment facilities have become increasingly digital over the past few decades. These changes have seen analog systems replaced with digital components, so that operation of these facilities requires little human intervention.
A hacker is a person who uses technical skills to overcome a challenge or a problem. Typically the term is used to describe someone working within a computerized system, but the hacker mentality can be very useful in other contexts.
As we’ve discussed on this podcast numerous times, technology has accreted into our daily lives in profound ways. First, manufacturers infused previously analog devices with digital components. Then we started connecting them to the internet.
Cars may not have keyboards and login screens, but they are crammed full of computers. These computers are responsible for an increasing number of critical functions in the car. There are even autonomous vehicles that require no human supervision.
The agricultural industry has been experiencing a quiet digital revolution. Previously analog, manual processes are becoming fully automated. Data scientists are plying their craft to millenia-old agricultural problems. Manufacturers are cramming farm equipment with digital components.
Electronics are all around us. From the computers and cell phones that we rely on for work, school, and pleasure, or in the aircraft, locomotives, and vehicles that get people and goods where they need to go, electronics are there storing and manipulating data, sensing, and operating in the physical world.
As we’ve discussed many times on this show, fleet assets like locomotives, aircraft, and maritime vessels generate massive volumes of data thanks to their copious digital components.
The Internet of Things or “IOT” is a physical device network that exchanges data. These devices have embedded sensors, actuators, and software, and often communicate over the internet. Examples of IOT devices include “smart home” devices like appliances, thermostats, security systems, and even lighting fixtures.
Cybersecurity red teaming is a multi-layered attack simulation designed to assess an organization’s security controls. The idea is to emulate attacks from real-world adversaries and see how the organization’s defenses hold up.
Many fleet assets like locomotives, aircraft, and military weapon systems generate a lot of data. As we’ve previously discussed, fleet asset lifetimes typically span decades, and a large portion of the world’s fleet assets have outdated on-board technology.
Previously we’ve discussed the Internet of Things or “IOT” — a physical network device that exchanges data. IOT devices are proliferating at a dizzying rate, and the cybersecurity community is scrambling to keep up.
OmniTRAX is a Colorado-based short line rail operator and logistics provider. Recently, they suffered a ransomware attack that seriously disrupted operations and caused material business impacts. Ransomware is an indiscriminate menace to anyone who uses information technology.